How did early humans use sharpened rocks to hunt massive creatures like mammoths and mastodons 13,000 years ago? Archaeologists have been intrigued by this mystery for years.
Previous theory suggests that early hunters might have thrown spears tipped with carefully crafted, razor-sharp rocks called Clovis points, surrounded and jabbed their prey or scavenged wounded animals, and used these tools to harvest meat and bones for food and supplies.
However, a new study from UC Berkeley archaeologists suggests that early humans did not use any of these methods. Instead, they used a technique that involved planting their spears on the ground and angling them upward to impale a charging animal. Through this approach, hunters could drive the spear deeper into the predator’s body, unleashing a more damaging blow.
Scientists examined worldwide historical evidence depicting hunting with planted spears to reach this conclusion.
Scientists also conducted the first experimental study on stone weapons to explore pike-hunting techniques. They simulated how spears react to the simulated force of an approaching animal. The experiments showed that once the sharpened rock pierced the flesh and activated its engineered mounting system, it acted like a modern hollow-point bullet and caused severe wounds to mastodons, bison, and saber-toothed cats.
Scott Byram, a research associate with Berkeley’s Archeological Research Facility and the first author of a paper, said, “This ancient Native American design was an amazing innovation in hunting strategies. This distinctive Indigenous technology provides a window into hunting and survival techniques used for millennia worldwide.”
Clovis points are among the most frequently unearthed items from the Ice Age. They were shaped from rocks such as chert, flint, or jasper and came in various sizes, from the size of a person’s thumb to that of a midsize iPhone. They had a distinct, razor-sharp edge and fluted indentations on both sides of their base.
The only recoverable portion of a spear is frequently the Clovis points. While the elaborately carved bone shafts at the tip of the spear are occasionally discovered, the pine pitch and lacing, as well as the wood at the base of the spear, are lost to the passage of time.
Jun Sunseri, a Berkeley associate professor of anthropology, said, “Plus, research silos limit that kind of systems thinking about prehistoric weaponry. And if stone specialists aren’t experts in bone, they might not see the full picture.”
“You have to look beyond the simple artifact. One of the things that’s key here is that we’re looking at this as an engineered system that requires multiple kinds of sub-specialties within our field and other fields.”
Building robust, resilient, and practical tools was essential for communities 13,000 years ago. At that time, people had a limited number of suitable rocks to work with while traversing. They had to travel hundreds of miles without access to the right long, straight poles to fashion a spear.
Scott Byram, a research associate with Berkeley’s Archeological Research Facility, said, “So it stands to reason they wouldn’t want to risk throwing or destroying their tools without knowing if they’d even land the animal.”
“People who are doing metal military artifact analysis know all about it because it was used for stopping horses in warfare. But before that, and in other contexts with boar or bear hunting, it wasn’t very well known. It’s a theme that comes back in literature quite a bit. But for whatever reason, it hasn’t been talked about too much in anthropology.”
Scientists evaluated their hypothesis by building a test platform to measure the force a spear system could withstand before the point snapped and the shaft expanded. Using a braced replica Clovis point spear, they created a low-tech, static animal attack to examine how different spears reached their breaking points and how the expansion system responded.
The study builds on earlier experiments where researchers fired stone-tipped spears into clay and ballistics gel, simulating how these tools might perform against a massive creature like a mammoth.
Jun says, “The energy generated by a charging animal is orders of magnitude greater than what can be achieved with a human arm.”
This means the spears were designed to maximize their effectiveness and protect the user.
This experimental approach also revisits ideas long considered by Byram, who, during his graduate studies, crafted replica Clovis points and spears using traditional methods. These new experiments offer insight into how these ancient tools might have been optimized for hunting large prey, reinforcing the idea that early humans used sophisticated techniques to enhance their hunting success.
Kent Lightfoot, a Berkeley anthropology emeritus, said, “The sophisticated Clovis technology that developed independently in North America is testimony to the ingenuity and skills that early Indigenous people employed in their cohabitation of the ancient landscape with now-extinct megafauna.”
Scientists plan to further test its theory by building something akin to a mammoth replica. Using a type of slide or pendulum, they hope to simulate what an attack might have looked like as a planted Clovis-tipped pike made an impact with a massive, fast-moving mammal.
Byram said, “Sometimes in archaeology, the pieces just start fitting together like they seem to now with Clovis technology, and this puts pike hunting front and center with extinct megafauna. It opens up a whole new way of looking at how people lived among these incredible animals during much of human history.”
Journal Reference:
- Byram RS, Lightfoot KG, Sunseri JU (2024) Clovis points and foreshafts under braced weapon compression: Modeling Pleistocene megafauna encounters with a lithic pike. PLoS ONE 19(8): e0307996. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307996